QA: Photojournalist José Galvez

Monday, 12 October 2009 18:37

José Galvez is a photojournalist who has made a lifetime commitment to photograph the life of the Chicano and Mexican American communities in the United States.

After 40 years of dedication, his passion is still to photograph his heritage.  He grew up in Tucson, Ariz., graduated from the University of Arizona with a degree in journalism, and became the first Mexican American photographer for the Los Angeles Times in the 1980s. While working for the Times he won a Pulitzer Prize for his work. His most recent  book is "Shine Boy,"  a memoir of his life growing up in Tucson. He spoke with Roxana Vasquez by telephone from his home in North Carolina.

Q: How was your life growing up in Tucson and what inspired you to become a photojournalist?

José Galvez: It’s not so much that I was inspired to become a photojournalist, as much as I was inspired to become a journalist first. I was mentored by a lot of great journalists at the Arizona Daily Star when I was a young boy. They watched me grow up as a young boy and encouraged me to go on to college. People from the journalism department would work at the newspaper. At first I was more interested in being a reporter than a photographer, but I was sort of pushed into photography. If you were Mexican back then you weren’t encouraged to think high, they really encourage you to think more practical, more blue-collar, and maybe think about the print shop or photography in terms of journalism because they were associated with journalism and newspapers but they don’t require as much intellect. 

Q: Was there a specific journalist you looked up to at the newspaper?

J: Not really. I was a copy boy at the newspaper when I was 16, so I would spend a lot of time reading the wire stories and I really admire the writing from The New York Times and The Washington Post columnists like Russell Baker and Tom Wicker, so they influenced me in the sense of their writing but I really didn’t take too much of photojournalism until later. It was then when I started researching photojournalists from another time and then I started admiring the work of W. Eugene Smith, Manuel Álvarez Bravo and the work of Ansel Adams.

Q: What was your reaction when you became a staff photographer for the Arizona Daily Star?

J: My circumstances were totally different than a lot of young people. I started at the newspaper sort of indirectly. At age 10 I walked into the newsroom with my shoeshine box and sort of fell in love with the place and really never left after that. They became my role models and protectors because my father had passed away when I was 12. I never really thought of myself as fortunate or a lucky Chicano or Mexican American. Back then I just felt that it was a natural progression.

Q: Why have you focused only on the Chicano and Mexican American culture in the U.S.?

J: There are too many photojournalists that want to find something exotic, like the gangs in East Los Angeles, Quinceñeras, or farm work. And they go there and they do their picture study and do really good work and then they jump to their next assignment covering the Armenians in Los Angeles or Russian Jews in Israel and always looking for an exotic thing to photograph. It’s not fair to say that they don’t have good intentions, but it’s not a lifetime commitment to record their lives and this is what I am doing recording my own heritage, my own ethnicity and I do it with love and respect. For me it's thinking about being steady with my work and working with pride. Ultimately the viewer, especially the Latino viewer, can see the person as a commitment to chronicling the Latinos and it’s not just someone coming in and studying them.

Q: Did you ever cover any assignments that didn’t pertain to the Latino community?

J: Not really. Only when I was involved in newspaper work. I haven’t really gone after something like that. We live in North Carolina and I haven’t gone and looked at the black community or the white Southerner who still displays the Confederate flag. I could but it’s not who I really am. It doesn’t really fit in my body of work.

Q: How did you become a staff photographer with the Los Angeles Times?

J: I had some contacts there and they were looking for a Latino and luckily my work was good. A lot of times knowing people and having them be your sponsor helps, but you have to be good at what you do.

Q: How do you feel about film vs. digital?

J:  Ninety-five percent of my work is still film. One problem with digital is that you could get really lazy. Using film will really discipline your eye and you have to edit yourself as you're thinking and shooting.

Q: How do you feel about multimedia?

J: I think that there is so much opportunity for journalism students because you have blogs, podcasts, online magazines and you're starting to have main stream journalism. I think it's great, but maybe there's too much. Everyone thinks they are a photographer and there's a lot of bad stuff out there.

Q: Out of the four books you've published, which one is most important to you and why?

J: I think "Vatos" is really important to me because it really says a lot and covers a lot of territory, like the young Chicano, farmworkers, fathers, students, professionals, the gang guys and more. It's been out for about 10 years and it still does really well, and people who go through it find a lot of impact in it. "Shine Boy" is much more personal to me, maybe with time it'll become more important as "Vatos." But right now, "Shine Boy" is still fresh. I am still digesting it and looking at people's reactions to it. It's a lot more gentle book because it's not controversial.

Q: As a photojournalist, what's next for you? Any projects lined up?

J: There are still parts of North Carolina that I haven't explored. I want to photograph more personal work, I've done a lot of street photography. Now I want to find someone to hang out with in their backyard, living room or in their kitchen.

Q: What advice do you give aspiring photojournalists?

J: Do not be afraid to take entry-level positions anywhere, freelance on a local level, and create a name for yourself.

Written by Roxana Vásquez